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Institute-wide Planning Task Force issues final report

December 16, 2009

To the members of the MIT community:

Last December, we wrote to announce that we would launch an Institute-wide Budget Planning Task Force as part of a long-term strategy to respond to the impact of the global financial crisis on MIT. Today, we are delighted to present the Task Force's final report—a remarkable study of MIT's options and opportunities for reducing costs and increasing revenue while enhancing our ability to perform our mission.

This report embodies thousands of hours of collective effort by the 200 members of the Task Force and especially by the three Task Force Coordinators, Vice President for Finance Israel Ruiz, Vice Chancellor and Dean for Graduate Education Steven R. Lerman and Associate Provost Martin A. Schmidt. Speaking on behalf of the MIT community, we are deeply grateful to the entire Task Force membership for their rigor, creative thinking and hard work.

Importantly, we also owe congratulations and thanks to the MIT community as a whole; this report constitutes your recommendations to us for how MIT should move forward. The Task Force made a concerted effort to seek insights and ideas from across MIT, through channels such as the Idea Bank, public forums and a public comment period on a preliminary version of this report. Because the people of MIT responded with thoughtfulness and candor, and the Task Force used those responses to inform its discussions and refine its final report, this document speaks with the wisdom of the whole community. It will serve the Institute not only through the substance of its recommendations but as a model of collaboration and transparency that should inspire future efforts to chart the way to transformative change.

As leaders charged with guiding MIT's budgetary decisions, we will now carefully evaluate the ideas and opportunities this final report presents. Some recommendations will require further study, consultation and adjustment. Others may be included with the Fiscal Year 2011 budget cycle decisions; we will announce by February some specific plans for implementation.

Once again, our thanks and congratulations to everyone who helped shape these important proposals for the future of MIT.